REFERENCE:
Fabio Fiorani and Rosalba Dinoia, De Nittis Incisore / De Nittis the Printmaker, Rome 1999.I warmly thank Rosalba Dinoia for her generous help. I also thank Arnoldo Manfredi who, in this occasion as in others in the past, gave me the help of the skilled eyes of a printmaker of second generation.

Giuseppe De Nittis represents, together with Boldini and Zandomeneghi, that part of the Italian artistic 'milieu' of the second half of the 19th century, which more clearly adopted the new poetic world of French Painting while maintaining a strong and constant bond with Italian tradition. Born in Puglia, De Nittis studied at the Accademia in Naples. The artist went to Paris in 1867 and settled there in 1868 to marry Léontine Gruvelle, who introduced him to Zola, Alexandre Dumas fils, Manet, and Degas. After a stay in Italy during the Franco Prussian War, De Nittis returned to Paris, becoming a celebrated chronicler of Parisian life and exhibiting regularly at the Salon. De Nittis' prints were all produced during his stay in Paris and were involved in the change that was taking place in the field of original etching in France: the development from a production directed mainly to an upper-class public to one conceived as pure experimentation and personal achievement.